Well, more than that we share ancestors -- they're our closest living relative, and also have the most similar sexual behaviour (although in general temperament we fall somewhere between the bonobos and the regular chimps). It's very true that we can't directly extrapolate from the animal world to human behaviour, because of the huge influence of cultural evolution, but I do think that's a close enough link to be more worth looking at than most similarities science bases major arguments on.
It's all complicated. I'm both fascinated by the field, and highly suspicious and critical of it, because of the extent to which we've often made our theories about the past fit our theories about our present. Somewhere down the comments I made a comment with several of the books I've read recently that are feeding into my current theorizing, if you're curious.
Oh - and one of the main differences between us & our cousins is what explains the original question - because we're bi-pedal it's harder to get in there - necessitating matters - I think you've basically concluded the same thing somewhere.
Right. That was my initial topic -- that I think there may be a purely anatomical explanation for why human penises are so abnormally large.
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Date: 2007-08-03 05:45 pm (UTC)It's all complicated. I'm both fascinated by the field, and highly suspicious and critical of it, because of the extent to which we've often made our theories about the past fit our theories about our present. Somewhere down the comments I made a comment with several of the books I've read recently that are feeding into my current theorizing, if you're curious.
Oh - and one of the main differences between us & our cousins is what explains the original question - because we're bi-pedal it's harder to get in there - necessitating matters - I think you've basically concluded the same thing somewhere.
Right. That was my initial topic -- that I think there may be a purely anatomical explanation for why human penises are so abnormally large.